Computer users have a need to back up their applications and data. However, until now, backing up data generally has been performed in one of two ways, each with its own problems. First, a common backup program may be used to backup all or a portion of the data stored on a storage volume, such as a hard disk, for many different installed applications. In general, the common backup program essentially copies data from the storage volume to a backup medium, such as a magnetic tape, by directories or files without regard to any particular structure that may be maintained by the applications owning the data. One problem with the common backup program is that it cannot identify whether applications have temporary or transient data which should be stored and included in the backup session. For that reason, the computer system may need to be taken offline or the applications paused or terminated to give the common backup program a quiescent or stable view of the data on the volume, which results in inefficient down time. Another problem with the common backup program is that it generally restores backed up data to exactly the same location on the volume from which the data came. Often during partial restore operations, this can result in restoring unnecessary files or data, and sometimes in overwriting good data in certain cases, such as where an application or its configuration settings have been modified and then backup data is restored over the new data.
The second type of backup system is an application-specific backup system. With this type of system, the application provides a customized backup process specific to the particular application. The application-specific backup process has the benefit of allowing the application to put itself in a quiescent state with respect to its own data and then initiate the backup operation. Since the application is presumed to have knowledge of the state and quality of its own data, the application specific backup program also has the benefit of allowing the application to identify specific groups of data or files to be backed up or excluded. However, the use of a separate backup program for each application is extremely burdensome to maintain and an inefficient use of resources. Accordingly, a need exists for an improved system and method to back up data.